Re: Brin on Privacy

Eric Watt Forste (arkuat@pobox.com)
Mon, 16 Dec 1996 11:03:48 -0800


>>I answered this above. In the short term, the paranoids and aynrandroids
>>will win. But if I am right, maturity will prevail in the long run.
>
>Like David Brin, I consider myself a pragmatist. My trust is earned because
>it is too expensive to give away. Trusting in the maturity and self-respect
>of others on such a sweeping scale is beyond me. I applaud Brin's ambition,
>genrosity, and optimism.

Honey, you have *really* got the intellectual judo thing down! I was
contemplating writing a nasty reply to Brin's little bit of smarmy,
disingenuous, John-Lennon-esque political propaganda, but the tack you
took was, I think, much more effective in the ears of the people who
count.

And it was great to see you at the party. Nietzsche wrote that in
the end it is our desires and not their objects that we love, but
if this is really so, then the people we love best are those few
rare people who can still make us feel truly desirous on many levels
at once. As you made me feel Saturday night. ;)